A new bill will allow a person to be tried and convicted of a criminal offence without seeing all the information relied on by the Crown and without the right to be present, the NZ Law Society says.

A man was held after continuing to sing in open court, defying a judge’s order to refrain from doing so.

According to a report from Stuff, a 33-year-old man with a history with the courts was remanded into custody at the Christchurch District Court yesterday. Paul Johnson, the man’s lawyer, noted his client faced Judge Stephen O’Driscoll for charges of drink driving, dangerous driving, causing injury, and breach of prison-release conditions.

While his lawyer was arguing in open court, the man reportedly saw his girlfriend. Not content just trying to signal and talk to her, the man broke out in song, defying judge O’Driscoll’s order to stop flirting in court.